Epicurean Heaven In Japan

I just came back from a two-week leisure and skiing trip in Tokyo and Hokkaido. Japan is a food paradise indeed! I have eaten just about every variety of food available! As I have mentioned, the best Japanese food is in Japan itself!

The first day in Tokyo, we went for a steamboat dinner where all the ingredients were thrown into the pot, filled it with water, mixed with sauce and milky cream, and voila! A delicious meal! After the soup had absorbed all the ingredients, rice was added in and we ended up eating delicious sticky rice! Not to mention the appetizing side dishes!

A sashimi dish

Prawn Sushi

Hot pot

Second day. In Haneda airport, we had breakfast at a ramen place where I had soy sauce ramen. We had to order through a machine and then the food would be cooked and served to us instantly. Lunch in Hakodate consisted of rice with salmon and roe, with side dishes of sautéed pickles and vegetables. Dinner was fried rice balls with seafood, consisting of scallop, sea urchin, miso soup and crab!

Ramen counter at Haneda Airport

Bento lunch at Hakodate

Christmas Eve Dinner at Hakodate

Drinks at Hakodate Beer Brewery

Hakodate Pink Beer (somehow does not look that pink in the photo)

Third day. Breakfast was a buffet of cold dishes. In Noboribetsu, lunch was spicy ramen. Dinner was a buffet of seafood, sushi, sashimi, you name it, they had it! We were at the banquet hall around half past seven, and the dinner ends at half past eight, so we only had an hour to gorge ourselves!

Enya Ramen Restaurant in N0boribetsu

Spicy Ramen

Buffet dinner at Noboribetsu

Fourth day. Breakfast was another buffet of cold dishes and American breakfast. Then we had a late lunch of delicious ramen at Susukino. Dinner was light, with a small teppanyaki, dumplings and sausages.

Yorocho Ramen at Susukino Alley - the place that started the famous Ramen Alley

Proprietor making ramen

My extra spicy (and delicious) ramen

North Star Teppanyaki Restaurant in Susukino Alley

Boxing Day dinner

Fifth day. We wanted to go down to the seafood market for breakfast, but woke up too late, so just proceeded on our way to Otaru. Upon reaching Otaru, we had lunch at a sushi place that serves the best sushi I have ever tasted in my life! My meal was a tempura set consisting of miso soup, rice and side dishes of sashimi. The sashimi is also the best I have ever tasted!

Otaru Sushi Restaurant - the best so far!

Interior of the sushi restaurant in Otaru

Best sushi I have ever tasted!

Tempura Set

Fish soup

Shredding a radish

The humongous ice-cream of many flavours - lavendar, vanilla, melon and chocolate

We wanted to eat a Yakitori dinner, but went there too late, so stumbled upon another restaurant in the same building that serves pretty good Hokkaido steamboat with Sapporo beer! A Japanese man behind us realized we were tourists so ordered sake for us on him! How nice!

Sapporo Beer

Hokkaido Steamboat

Big bottle of sake

The sake we partook

Sixth day. Breakfast was at a café along the Sapporo Station. I had toast with scrambled eggs while some of them had pancakes with maple syrup. Upon reaching Niseko, we had soup and toast for a late lunch. We wanted to go to this restaurant called Bang Bang for dinner, but reservations were required. In the end, it turned out that the place was fully booked for the week, so we settled for another sushi restaurant that paled in comparion with the one in Otaru.

Then we went shopping for groceries in case we should get hungry. Seventh day. Breakfast was homemade toast and eggs before we went out to ski. Lunch was a small sandwich at the ski café. By the time it was dinner, I was famished! We ate Yakiniku, had a great time cooking the meat. We ordered mutton, beef and pork, together with bean sprouts! We even tried out with the different sauces for the meat!

Eighth day. I decided to cook spaghetti for the rest of them, so I made pasta. Since there was no beef available and in any case, one of the girls could not eat beef, I cooked bacon and cut it into strips, before mixing it with spaghetti and tomato sauce. Not sure how well I did, but according to feedback, the spaghetti tasted really nice! Lunch was again at the ski café, then we had another ramen for dinner.

Ninth day. I cooked eggs for everyone for breakfast, but my sunny side up (two eggs with one egg white and two yolks) did not turn out that well since I accidentally broke the eggs. Still, I think the eggs were pretty good. We then had toast and milk. Lunch at the ski café, then dinner at a cosy restaurant called Mozart, where I had veal.

Tenth day. We had instant noodles for breakfast, and the mistress kindly cooked eggs for us. At least her sunny side up looks perfect! Lunch was a seafood consommé at the Hilton, and dinner at a small tempura restaurant, where we were having so much fun that the manager actually came by and hushed us up!

Eleventh day. Breakfast was eggs and toast, lunch at the ski café, then dinner at Oh Do Ri! in Sapporo. My friend had seafood curry while I had chicken and vegetable curry so we could just share and swop.

Interior of Oh Do Ri! Restaurant

Chicken and Vegetable Curry Set

Seafood Curry Set

Twelfth day. I took the train without eating breakfast. I was in the train the whole day without eating anything, so by the time I reached Tokyo, I was famished! Too famished and tired, so all I did was to drink some milk and went to bed.

Thirteenth day. I had a breakfast of toast and orange juice then went out exploring. Lunch was delicious cold soba at the Yokohama Takashimaya. I was so full that I could actually skipped dinner!

The very delicious soba

Fourteenth day. Breakfast was hot cocoa and a Belgian Chocolate brownie at a café in Ginza. Lunch was teriyaki chicken on the plane. And hence the end of all the glorious food!

Globetrotters Restaurant @ Goldhill Plaza

I was at this restaurant at Goldhill Plaza (opposite Novena Square) last night as part of a group event. Since we were in a private room of sorts, even the menu was a special set dinner instead of the a la carte menu. Since we are in a group function, the restaurant would have catered a special menu for us.

The food is not too bad though, the banana mousse is really great! The service is not bad, the waiters and waitresses are nice and friendly. The cost is pretty economical as well for a set meal, definitely not like some of those up market restaurants with food that is not up to par yet is so costly. Not a bad place to go!

Food : 3.5 out of 5
Ambience : 3 out of 5
Price : 3.5 out of 5

Prive @ Keppel Marina

Finally I went to this restaurant last night after talking about wanting to go there for quite some time. The last time we tried to go there, the place was fully booked. This time round, I was lucky to get dinner reservations the day before. Looks like the financial crisis is hitting everyone hard. Where the place used to be full and we could not get any reservations a day before, last night there was hardly anyone. Only four tables were filled when we stepped in.

Both of us had never been there, so we had some fun trying to find our way around the artificial island, where the parking was scarce and finding the restaurant at the end of the stretch. In front of the restaurant is a wooden door. We were trying to figure out if that was the entrance when an elegantly-dressed lady greeted us and asked if we were joining her for dinner.

I was rather taken aback, so was him. Nevertheless, he answered yes and I just nodded my head. So she pushed the wooden door open and brought us in. I must say, the place is posh indeed! Reeks of class! The dim lighting only makes it classier, but then again, this is an up market place anyway.

We were ushered into a table across the entrance, passing by two more tables in the process. It is hard to describe the orientation of the place unless one has been there. The whole interior of the restaurant looks rectangular in shape. There are three rows of tables. The first row is just by the entrance, the second row in the middle and the last behind (or in front depending on where one is facing) the middle, right by the wall. Anyway, there is some hint as to seating arrangement from the link.

So we were being seated at the table right by the wall. Where I was seating, my back was to the wall and I could see the entrance. He was seated opposite me, behind the middle row, facing the wall. The lady was so helpful, she even gave me a little stand to put my bag and shawl! My friend and I looked at each other and concluded that we initially thought we were crashing into a private party of sorts, hence the look of confusion on both our faces. We did not expect to see an usher, and an elegantly dressed one at that (she looks like she was attending a cocktail party).

Anyway, the food is not too bad. I ordered a Tasmanian Ocean Trout (which looks and tastes like salmon), and he ordered a Baramundi (a kind of fish). Appetizers were a half dozen oysters! Desserts were Vanilla Crème Brulee (for me) and a kind of custard (which I cannot recall the name now) for him.

Tea for me and beer for him. I must say, the tea was served in a real English tea style, with the teapot, tea cup, strainer, milk jug, and sugar containers, although the sugar containers look bigger than the tea cup! It would be better to just give me some cubes of sugar on a small dish together with the tea, instead of two full containers of white and brown sugar cubes each!

There is also an open space outside the restaurant, for people to chill out with drinks. When we went out, there was a fancy dress party going on, so I saw a Red Indian and a gladiator, and he saw a Wonder Woman. Interesting gimmicks people can come up with! However, those involved are mostly Caucasians. Looks like Asians in general are still relatively uncreative and not willing to indulge in this kind of fun!

Cuisine : Mediterranean
Food : 4.5 out of 5
Ambience : 4.5 out of 5
Price : 2.5 out of 5

The Different Kinds Of Rice

For the past two weeks or so, I have been eating a different kind of rice at home without even realizing it! All along, we were eating rice from Thailand – thick, a bit hard and rather aromatic. As an Asian, I grow up eating rice as a staple food. My parents are still open to adventures, if we go for different cuisines, but to my grandmother, rice is a must for every meal. She would frown if we eat steak or whatnot as our main course instead of rice, as to her, she can never fathom how anyone can be full without eating any rice!

I have tried different kinds of rice – polished, unpolished, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Australian. Rice can be cooked into porridge (for coarse grains) or congee (for fine grains). Chicken congee mixed with shredded chicken and fried onion, with fried dough fritters and sesame oil is the best! Japanese rice seems finer, as do Korean rice. Australian rice is pretty fine, and best to be used in making porridge.

When I was in lower secondary, we had to do a science investigative project and I chose to investigate the cooking times, temperatures and texture of the various kinds of rice. I discovered that Thai rice still takes the shortest time to cook and turns out the coarsest and most aromatic. There were times when I had unpolished rice, cooked as porridge. The porridge looks reddish brown, and tastes better than normal white porridge (which essentially is rather bland if it is just plain porridge). When I was young, whenever I had to take porridge, I would add it with Bovril or Marmite to sweeten it.

However, for the past couple of weeks, I did not even know I had been eating a different kind of rice! The price of Thai rice is getting rather exorbitant lately, and in order to buy enough to feed a family at the same price, my mum switched to Vietnamese rice. It was only after my dad commented the rice is a bit harder that I realize it was a different kind of rice!

The texture of Vietnamese rice is a bit coarser than Thai rice, thus harder. But the difference is very insignificant, in fact, hardly noticeable until my dad made the remark! It does not matter to me actually, whether the rice is hard or soft. It is just a staple food and I have gotten rather immune to eating it that I do not notice the taste anymore!

Cooking Up A Storm

It had been some time since I last pottered around the kitchen, so when I was invited to a mini gathering of sorts last night, I offered to bring food. I prepared fried chicken wings, fish bits, vermicelli (again!) and cheese crackers for dessert to go with the French white wine which my friend is bringing along.

I started with the chicken marinade. It is actually quite easy to marinade the chicken wings as they would be deep fried anyway, so all I did was to add light soya sauce, powder spices, chopped garlic and onions to get the flavour, and then soak the chicken wings thoroughly into the marinade. Leave on for at least half an hour or so.

Powder for the chicken marinade

Marinated Chicken Wings

When the chicken wings were ready to be fried, I had to prepare the flour. By right, corn flour or chicken frying flour should be used, but since I only have self-raising flour at home, I had to make do with that. Each wing has to be thoroughly covered with flour before it could be fried. In order to let the flour stick to the wing, the wing had to be dipped in a beaten egg first.

Dip the chicken wing into the beaten egg

Cover it thoroughly with flour

Pre-fried Chicken Wings

One thing about deep frying is the amount of oil to be used. By right, the oil should take up at least half the wok, as the wing has to be totally submerged in the oil. That is why deep frying is never a healthy option!

Amount of oil used to deep fry chicken wings

The first batch of fried chicken wings

Next, I fried fish bits. That was easier as all I had to do was to spread breadcrumbs over the fish bits, then dip it in the oil and within five minutes, it was done!

Fried Fish Bits

The completed chicken wings and fish bits

Next, I cooked vermicelli. Those who have been keeping up will know this was not the first time I cooked vermicelli. I cooked it again because it is easy to prepare and practical enough to bring to a gathering.

Fried Vermicelli (completed)

Finally, for dessert, I wanted to make canapes - crackers with cheese and a piece of grape on top. However, I did not have enough grapes, and if I used up those I had, my mum would kill me, so in the end I made cheese crackers instead.

I used three different kinds of cheese - Australian Mild Cheddar, French Brie and Blue Cheese. I cut the cheese into square bits, put a piece onto a cracker and covered it up with another cracker, and that was it!

Cheese Crackers

At least those who ate commented the food was good, so it was an achievement indeed! Luckily no one fell sick! Come to think of it, I kind of miss pottering around the kitchen. I should do it more often from now on!

Four Seasons Durian Cafe @ Joo Chiat

Finally, I had a chance to try out the famous Four Seasons Durian Cafe in Joo Chiat. Apparently the cafe has opened for about a year now, and I have not realised it until recently! Perhaps because it is the durian season (ending soon actually), so the place is only thriving this period of time.

The cafe is situated in a corner by the road side. It took the place of a converted shophouse. The walls are green with yellow and green signs to signify durians. Each time I passed by, the place would be crowded with all races - Chinese, Malays, Indian, even Caucasians!

When I went there on Friday night, we managed to find a place to sit. We started out with coconut juice, then had our pick of durians. The durians are big, more than a kilogram at least! We had three D24s, two with bitter flesh and one with a sweet flesh, and the ultimate "Mao Shan Wang", the high-class durian, with sweet flesh.

My friend parked at the road side at first, but when a police car came, everyone ran to their cars to park further into the lane in between the shophouses. I must say, despite the popularity of the place, it is rather inaccessible indeed if one has no transport!

The durians in season are really different from those from other months! The flesh is creamy and juicy, and the seeds are really big! Other times I could eat one durian, as the seeds were smaller, but that day, after just a few seeds, I was really full! I was so bloated! And my friends were equally full, all of us were about to burst that in the end, we could not finish all the durians and had to pack some seeds back!

Overall it was a good experience! What can be better to eat good fleshy durians, especially those in season, drinking coconut juice and chit chatting until daybreak? The only catch is that the durians there are more expensive than other places, but then I always believe you pay for what you get! I was so full that I could hardly sleep that night!

Shuunju Izakaya @ Robertson Quay

We went to the this other Yakitori place at Robertson Quay on Friday to celebrate my youngest brother's birthday and ate to our hearts' content again. We had a great variety of dishes, like chicken pieces, ox tongue, pork bellies, a kind of beancurd with egg that is the specialty of the restaurant, plum wine, sashimi, pregnant fish, and green tea ice cream for dessert.

The food was good, so was the ambience, although dining alfresco would be a better idea since we were sitting right in front of the counter where the food was prepared. The restaurant itself is pretty cosy with dim lighting and lots of Japanese wine on display. But to compare it with the previous Yakitori place I went to, the previous one is still better in my opinion!

Cuisine : Japanese
Food : 4 out of 5
Ambience : 4 out of 5
Price : 3.5 out of 5